We headed up into the hills to take a little hike so that the dogs would be a little exercised before we started sightseeing. The drive up into the hills was very pretty. We were getting high up above the cities and the views were beautiful. Finally we found a place where we could get out and take a little walk. There was an actual trail but we decided to walk on the gravel road as we could see Boogie easily. We didn't want to take any chances of a mountain lion getting him.
We let the girls and Boogie off leash. Oh man did Boogie ever need to run! It had been quite a while since he'd been off leash and he'd stored up a lot of energy. He raced up and down the road at full speed. Wazzu was in a great mood and she ran back and forth with Boogie attacking her for all he was worth. It was great to see the two of them so happy. When we got to the top of the hill there was a very large flat field. At that point we let Slugger off leash too as there really wasn't anywhere for him to disappear.
Up here, there were about 50 of these huge long white concrete road barricades. I suppose they each weigh a quite a few tons. Anyway, the dogs had a great time sniffing around and under them for rodents. Here's an interesting shot of Slugger at the end of a couple of the barriers.
The dogs had a great time romping around looking for critters. I don't think Boogie slowed down the whole time.
It was freezing and very windy and neither Mike nor I had dressed for cold weather. Originally we had thought we'd hike for an hour or two but there was no way we could stay outside that long in this weather. It actually started snowing on us!! Brrrr.
So what does silly Boogie do? He zooms around playing then runs over to a small pile of dirt and digs a little trough to lie down in....just like he does when he's hot! How can he be hot when it's blustery and snowing?! He's crazy!
Now that we had the edge off the dogs we felt comfortable taking a little sightseeing drive. We went to Santa Barbara and drove through downtown and up the coast. This is the busiest downtown we've ever seen. It's a beautiful downtown area - and the people are very friendly.
We were driving slowly and Mike was looking from side to side as he was trying to find a place that we could eat with four dogs. There was a Verizon truck ahead of us that pulled over to the side of the road. I didn't think anything about it but then a couple blocks later he was in the lane next to us. He yelled out and asked if we were okay - he said we looked lost. Mike said we were fine. The guy then yelled back saying he loved our dog - he was talking about Slugger as he was the only dog that was visible. I can't tell you how often we get that! The law may not like Slugger but we get more people saying they love him than all our other dogs put together.
After driving around a bit we found some shops at the harbor. We found a little restaurant there called the Minnow Cafe.
It is such a little place that after we finished eating, Mike said this was the smallest restaurant we've ever eaten at. But the food was GREAT. Since we were right on the water we both decided we on Fish N Chips. It was the second best Fish N Chips I've ever had. Super good!
There was no indoor seating - just little tables outside. This was perfect for us since we had dogs with us. They seemed to be enjoying the lunch too. While we were eating a gal stopped and wanted to pet the dogs. Wazzu was closest and started to nuzzle up to the gal but the gal totally ignored her and went right to Slugger....just like always. Everyone loves Slugger.
In the above picture, if you look just to the right of the white garbage can and to the left of the light blue door you see a little dark area - this is the entrance to the restaurant. The opening is about four feet wide. After entering you walk in about five feet where you order at the counter. That's it! Now that's a small restaurant.
After we ate we walked around the harbor on the pier. We couldn't believe the number of sailboats in this marina. And the backdrop was so pretty as well.
On the opposite side of the pier was the ocean. The colors were so pretty and the water looked so peaceful. It really was a beautiful place to walk.
At the end of the pier was a low statue of a dolphin head and neck. Boogie was scared of it and would bark at it and run away. Strangely enough, Wazzu was scared of it too. She slowly walked toward it and then turned her head way to the side and walked away giving it a very wide berth - exactly like she did with the rattlesnake! Very weird.
From there we loaded up in the car and drove to an off leash dog beach. We thought this was going to be a great place...but so did about 300 other people! When we first got on to the beach we found a rather empty little area so we thought we could let Slugger off leash to chase a stick.
He loves that more than anything and always stays right near us. So Mike threw the stick and all four of our dogs went full speed after the stick. What Mike didn't realize was that there was a deep pool of water between the dogs and the stick. All the dogs paths took them beside the pool except for Wazzu. She feel into the pool at full speed and must have done three complete somersaults. I didn't think she was ever going to stop. One somersault was completely under water. It all seemed like it happened in slow motion. I was so worried that she had broken her neck or a few other bones. But somehow she came out of it with no broken bones - but she was very dazed. Poor Wazzu.
Slugger got the stick and brought it back. Unfortunately, as soon as Mike threw the stick this time, two big labs came flying out of nowhere. This makes us very nervous as Slugger never looks at another dog as he just wants to play with his stick. But he doesn't like it if another dog tries to take the stick from him. So the poor guy had to go back on leash right away. We just don't want to take the chance of another dog trying to steal the stick. But he took it all in stride and spent his time staring in the various pools of water.
But the much bigger problem was Boogie! He is a social butterfly. It didn't matter if the dog was three pounds (yes, we saw a couple dogs that small) or 130 pounds (yes, we saw dogs that big), he wanted to play with them. And he did...no matter how far down the beach the dogs ran, he went right with them. I'm calling and calling and he's playing and playing...suddenly he has gone deaf!
He had absolutely no fear. He went from dog to dog, chasing, playing, barking, jumping, etc. And all the dogs loved him! Every single dog he met played with him. He finally found one dog that played like our dogs play with him...it chased him and knocked him down over and over and over. If it would have just been on the sand it wouldn't have been so bad - but there were large rocks that he was being slammed down on. I must have tried for 20 minutes to catch Boogie...but they were much faster than me - oh and remember, Boogie is deaf. FINALLY, I caught him. And as you might imagine he was put on leash!! I've don't think I've ever seen him have more fun. It was a good lesson for me - he needs a LOT of work on "come" when there are other dogs around. Sometimes he was hundred yards away from me...and he didn't seem to even remember I was on the beach.
So he had to give me this pathetic little look which I'm sure said "Why did you put me back on this leash - I was having such a good time!
I did let him off leash again when I found an empty pocket of beach. He was still full of vim and vigor as you can see here. Wazzu sure is a good big sister to put up with this.
Everyone seemed to have a great day....but boy do I have a lot to work on with my little social butterfly who now wants his dad to buy him an off-leash beach full of dogs.
Debbie
1/22/08
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